So we arrived in Sydney to find that our hostel, Footprints, was opposite the wholesalers of Fluffy clouds! Mel fell down the pavement with all her bags on in shock! Sydney did not make a massive impression it feels too crowded and tall compared with the rest of oz.

We had an excellent day exploring paddy's markets - and found the John Williamson Cd with the song Christmas Photo on it (we had heard it on the Kuranda train!). We walked through Darling Harbour, Spent far too much money in the surf lifesaving shop and visted the maritime Museum (and saw the model of the Emden). We collected bargain veg and lychees for dinner and made a stir fry.

We are sleeping in a 28 bed dorm called the church with lovely stain glass windows. However, after extensive research I have decided that it is impossible for Irish people to whisper and therefore we had to listen to them all night.

After about 4 hours sleep we rose to have our day of days! We went to rushcutters bay and did a one day Spinnakers course with East Sail. It was enjoyable, we learnt A LOT, tried to remember our knots and had beautiful views of the harbour and opera House. The wind picked up to around 25-30 knots and then we got into all sorts of trouble - main sheet and spinnaker ended up in the water! But lots of fun. It is how you recover from your mistakes that makes the difference! As a wise kitchen graffiti artist once told me - 90% of the problem is our reaction. We survived and calmly carried on.

That finished at 430 and we headed straight to Aussie Stadium (where the Ashes will be in a couple of weeks) However we had a much more exciting event - Robbie Williams. Having picked up some tickets from someone in our hostel and with a little bit of pushing in at queues we ended up in the front row (if a little off centre) to his concert! Robbie was great - although disapointingly did not sing the Finding Nemo soundtrack which surely is obvious in Syndey! Surely! He was also joined on stage by Johnny Wilkes - erm no idea who he is! STu (from google) says he is robbie's best mate from school!

Mel was most impressed with the support act - sneaky sound system - who were awesome.

Today we headed out to Bondi - the first lifesaving club in OZ and then back into the city and wandered around the rocks.

Love from the city which is the coldest australian city in summer and the warmest in winter!

mel and stu x